ABSTRACT
The perceived need to strengthen the demand side for agricultural service provision for enhancing innovation and the call for a separation of responsibilities for policy-making, funding and implementation have resulted in innovations such as alternative funding mechanisms for agricultural research for development (R4D) at national and local levels (NEPAD, 2002; FARA, 2006). These institutional innovations aim at enhancing multi-stakeholder resource control, increasingly involving research clients and the end users of agricultural production and processing technology in decisions concerning the allocation of research staff, money and infrastructure (Carney, 1998; Chema et al, 2003; Heemskerk and Wennink, 2006). It is envisaged that these reorganized funding mechanisms for agricultural innovation will combine greater efficiency in resource management with improved effectiveness in innovation development through stronger client control, thus better addressing the agricultural and natural resource management needs, particularly of small-scale farmers and processors.
